Friday, June 27, 2008

Merry & Bright adds another punch of color to the holiday season! If Sandy Gervais' Holly Jolly line from last year was your favorite, then Merry & Bright will knock your socks off as well. She has done something wonderful with Christmas themes -- ornaments, holly, candy cane stripes, and trees as never seen before, especially the plaids and stripes! Definitely merry, and definitely bright with red, yellow, green, and teal. Be prepared to be delighted. Speaking of delight, we have some awesome kits using Merry & Bright!

Merry Christmas from water-logged Iowa! Here in Algona we are all safe and dry. Many of the farm fields have ponds and some parts of fields will have to be replanted, but overall we are so much more fortunate than those to the south of us.

Since Holly Jolly, (last year’s Christmas line) was so successful it was decided to use the same coloring in this year’s Christmas line, Merry & Bright. I have only repeated a coloring back to back one other time in my 13 years of designing fabric.

I was thrilled to hear that we would be repeating the colors. I spend the most time developing the colors, mixing and mixing until I finally get the color that I have pictured in my mind. It sometimes takes me 2 weeks to finalize the color palette. I always say once I have the color palette I am half done with the line. So by repeating the colors, I saved myself two weeks time! – I could get to painting that much quicker!

After the colors are decided the work is over and I can relax and paint. I actually paint out every single piece of fabric on paper. Of course painting out the panel is always the most fun. This line has two panels and a preprinted table runner. It is always a challenge to come up with a new twist on the usual Christmas motifs. (I mean really, how many ways can you make a tree?) But I love the challenge!

After the fabric is completely finalized I receive a disc with each of the pieces of fabrics scanned to the disc. I use this to design and computer-generate the quilts for this fabric line. It is almost like sewing using the computer! By doing this the sales reps can show the shops the fabric and the patterns at the same time. This is a great help to the shop owners when they are buying the line.

About 2-3 weeks before the shops receive their fabric I receive mine. I then make the “real” quilts – using a sewing machine – no computer involved at this point. The quilts are then photographed and become pattern covers. I designed seven patterns for this line of fabric. You can see and buy all of these patterns right here at Fat Quarter Shop.

So what am I doing today? I am anxiously awaiting my UPS delivery as I will be receiving Tranquility. You will have to wait until November to see this line and I hope you like it as much as I do.

I am also in the middle of painting out my Christmas 2009 line. Think fun and out of the box. (Just a little teaser for all of you.) :-)

I hope you enjoy Merry & Bright as much as I enjoyed designing it. Email me pictures of your projects. I love to see how you use my fabric.